by Leah Justice
While one commissioner questioned the state desiring to run a tag office out of Polk County, another said Polk has an 80 percent chance of the state allowing the county to run its own tag office.
Polk commissioners met April 7 and first heard from commissioner Ray Gasperson, who read a letter from the state division of motor vehicles indicating that the state is not currently interested in having a state run tag
office in Polk County.
Commissioner Keith Holbert, who has been working on getting a tag office in the county since he was elected in 2012, said at this point there is about an 80 percent chance the state will allow the county to run its own tag office.
Holbert said the state license plate agency recently placed an advertisement in the Asheville Citizen Times for a commercial business to run a tag office in Polk County and if there are no offers, the state could allow the county to run its own tag office.
The last day of the advertisement was April 7, according to Holbert.
If the state allows a tag office, the county plans to run it under the tax office and house the agencies in the current Polk County Early College. Polk owns the building that was originally the Polk County Library, located on Walker Street in Columbus.
Gasperson placed the item on last week’s agenda saying he wanted to clarify where the county is heading with the tag office.
Gasperson read a letter received by the county on July 2, 2013 from the N.C. Department of Transportation Division of Motor Vehicles’ Administrative Officer Donna Boone.
The letter stated that the state had received Polk’s application for a license plate agency and the division uses certain criteria to determine the need to open additional agencies. Some of the criteria, Boone said includes municipal population, vehicle population and the proximity of a new agency to existing agencies.
“We are not currently seeking to open another LPA (license plate agency) in Polk County,” said Boone in the letter. “Generally when a new LPA is needed, the division issues a local media announcement and begins the application and interview process.”
Gasperson also said he had a conversation with Chuck Abernathy, manager of McDowell County, which was the first county to take on running its own license plate agency. Gasperson said he was told it takes McDowell County three full-time employees and one part-time employee to run the office and they are covering the direct costs, but not the indirect costs. McDowell County’s population is approximately 45,000.
“I’ve always said it would be great to have in Polk County,” Gasperson said of a tag office. “I don’t want to get citizens’ hopes up. I’m opposed to growing county government and certainly opposed to it costing extra taxpayer money.”
Holbert responded that if Gasperson had taken the time to ask him, he would have told him where a license plate agency in Polk County stood.
Holbert said when McDowell County first opened they were running their tag office at break even or making a little money. He said right now Polk County is losing money to other counties plus Polk citizens are being charged interest for delinquent bills. Holbert was referring to the new way the state is collecting vehicle taxes and registration at the same time with Holbert saying mistakes are occurring so there have been some incidences where another county is holding taxes a Polk resident has paid resulting in the resident being charged interest and penalties because Polk hasn’t received those payments.
“If we can get it all under our control I think we can make it better,” said Holbert.
Holbert said he thinks Polk can run a license plate agency profitably with likely one full-time person for a county as small as Polk.
Polk County has had license plate offices in the county in the past, all run through individual commercial agencies approved by the state. There has never been a government run license plate agency in Polk County either by the state or the county. Most Polk residents now travel to either Henderson or Rutherford County to take care of license plate needs.
Last year the state driver’s license agency said they would bring the current van that visits Columbus near the post office into the county’s early college building as well. Holbert said he envisions the county tax and tag office also being housed there.
The driver’s license agency has plans to be in the building between July and September, according to Holbert, once the early college moves into its new building, which is currently being renovated near the high school.